Improve customer engagement with triggered emails

Triggered emails make up a very small proportion of all emails sent by businesses, yet they drive higher open and click-through rates than business-as-usual email campaigns.

Emails triggered in real-time by a consumer action, such as website registration, checkout abandonment or date-related triggers such as birthdays or renewals, are increasingly being used by businesses.

Epsilon's recent "Q3 2012 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks" report reveals that the use of triggered emails rose 19.1% in Q3 2012 compared with the same period in 2011. [Update: Epsilon has since emailed me to advise that an error had been made in the initial findings and that the actual rise in use in Q3 2012 is 10.3% - 12/12/12]

According to Epsilon, this type of email communication drives 75.1% higher open rates and a significant 114.8% higher click-through rate than more common business-as-usual strategies.

As well as the uptick in engagement, triggered email systems send information to a customer at a time when they are most likely to act on it. Furthermore, an automatic triggered email system needs little maintenance but yields impressive results.

"It's no surprise that triggered messaging improves customer engagement, builds loyalty and drives sales," said Judy Loschen, Vice President of Digital Analytics at Epsilon. "The challenge is the integration of triggered message systems, as with other real time systems, can be an overwhelming and often lengthy process that requires significant investment to yield the pay-off. Over the past year we've seen many marketers investing in the implementation of triggered message systems because the return on investment is significant and the results are immediate."